Vitor Vianna, the head jiu-jitsu instructor at the Wand Fight Team in Las Vegas, has signed a deal with Bellator Fighting Championships, officials today announced.

The fighter is expected to debut this summer and could be part of a future middleweight tournament.

The seven-year pro owns a 10-1-1 MMA record.

In fact, his only loss came to current UFC fighter Thiago Silva in a 2006 Fury FC event. Vianna broke his arm checking a head kick, which resulted in a TKO loss.

“I have been watching Bellator for a long time,” Vianna stated. “They are one of the best promotions in the world, and they have great fighters. I’m just really excited to fight in the big show against big fighters, and to have the opportunity to show the world who I am.”

In a recent profile on MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com), Vianna’s manager discussed the difficulty of getting the fighter booked for events.

“It’s been difficult for us,” manager Rob Cardenas said. “It’s been … I don’t want to say people are afraid to fight him because that’s not exactly true, but it’s been difficult.”

The Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, who now trains often with Wanderlei Silvaa, owns numerous grappling titles since he began training as a 15-year-old.

“We constantly strive to sign the world’s best possible talent for Bellator, and Vitor certainly fits that bill,” Bellator Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebeny stated. “We’ve been working to bring Vitor to Bellator for quite a while, and as a fan and as Bellator’s CEO, I am very excited to see him step into the Bellator cage for us this summer.”

A total of 26 fighters got their chance to shine on Saturday as part of UFC 190 at Rio de Janeiro’s HSBC Arena. Now that UFC 190 is in the books, it’s time to commence MMAjunkie’s “Three Stars” ceremony.

The man known for cranking submissions to the point of injury added eye-gouging to his repertoire. But is the controversy of Rousimar Palhares too essential to his bizarre, awful appeal for his employers to take any meaningful action against him?